We really love when makers make their construction techniques evident in an aesthetically-pleasing way, and [Laura Kampf] has created a clever joint that reveals how a piece is made.
[Kampf] is a big fan of using her domino joiner, which is similar to biscuits or dowel joinery, but she didn’t love how it hid the construction of the joint. She first figured out an “off label” use of the joiner by running it from the outside of the joint to show the exposed domino from one end.
Building on the concept to show an interesting contrast on both sides of the joint, she drilled a hole perpendicular the domino and placed a dowel through it, creating a locking joint. The choice looks great once a finish is applied to really accentuate the contrast, and another bonus is that if glue is only applied to the dowel and domino, it becomes trivial to separate the joint if needed by drilling out the dowel.
If you’d like to see some other interesting ways to join wood, how about this laser-cut wedge tenon, soda bottle heat shrink, or this collection of CNC joints.
+1
HAD would do well to keep in mind that when working with materials for our various projects, wood will never go out of style.
For some reason I find that wood and computers don’t go together very well. The wood parts end up looking somehow clumsy and out of place – or if you try to hide the computery parts, then it becomes a weird rectangular lump of wood with wires sticking out of the back.
You can have wooden details on a computer and that works fine – but if the majority of it is made out of wood, then it starts looking kinda dumb.
“Why is nobody using this technique?”
Because it’s extra work, and the whole point of the domino is to provide a hidden, reinforced joint.
But, I suppose you have to keep coming up with new material for videos. Gotta get those clicks!
There’s also very little to keep the drilled out domino from simply splitting along the grain, especially if you try to do the old offset hole trick to actually pull the joint in tight with the dowel. You can easily just rip off the tiny bridge at the end of the domino.
Most novelty joinery like this ends up compromising the structure, not making it better – but it looks cool.
And because the video author invented it herself and has dubbed it her new “signature wood joint”.
I guess asking “Has anyone seen this style of wood joint before?” would have been better, but is not nearly as clickbaity.
Any carpenter who has seen this joint has been hired to repair it. Shrink-swell from temp and humidity alone is enough to cause failure for this one.
I’d add a lock pin to secure the lock pin…
its lock pins all the way down
If you want to learn how to make a classic mortice and tenon joint with nothing but your hands and basic woodworking tools, I can think of no better than a lesson from Paul Sellers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBodzmUGtdw
It’s an 30 minute unabridged video where he calmly makes a joint and tells you all about it. He’s offloading decades of experience into your brain. Then go and try it yourself. You’ll transcend into new levels of being.
A domino joint is technically a “loose tenon joint” – it’s just a brand name for a particular system of making them.
So this would be a “half doweled loose tenon joint”, or a “half locking loose tenon joint” if you wish.